2010 Wimbledon Winner?
A resurgent Rafael Nadal went to Paris on a high after winning in Madrid, giving pundits a sneak peak into who will win the French Open. Nadal played flawless tennis during the course of the championship. He did not drop a single set. It was his determination that helped him to a fifth French Open title. This however did not come as a surprise to many who felt this would be Nadal’s title.
Now with Wimbledon fast approaching, pundits are back to their statistic sheets to predict the winner on grass. But with the warm up events to Wimbledon not going by the book, it has become difficult to forecast who would lift the trophy at SW19 this year.
Looking at how men’s tennis has panned out in the last almost ten years, Nadal has been the dominant force on clay while Federer is considered to be the King of grass. However the last two years have witnessed some mind boggling role reversals. In 2008 Nadal outlplayed Federer in the final of Wimbledon after a grueling five sets marred by interruptions. Federer was not one to stay in the shadows, he took advantage of Nadal’s injury last year and went on the win the only grand slam trophy he had not managed to get his hands on; the French Open.
This year it seems there may be some element of unpredictability in the men’s draw of the Wimbledon Championships. If one is to go by history, with Nadal winning the French Open as per the norm, one could assume that it would be Federer who would reign supreme on grass. But somehow it seems this would be far from reality. One of the main reason is Federer’s less than exceptional performance post his victory at the Australian Open. There has been no magic in Federer ‘s racquet after Melbourne. This was evident in the defence of his French Open title when he crashed out to Robin Soderling in the quarter finals and more recently his loss to Lleyton Hewitt in the final of Halle, which he has never lost since 2002.
It seems as if Federer’s game is not as solid as it used to be when no opponent was a match for him. Mistiming is evident in his shots, his serve is not as accurate as it used to be and he is more prone to mistakes that make him lose focus in the match. Federer’s fans are used to watching him breeze past his adversaries, but it seems as if those days may be in the past. Irrespective of his performances in the last six months he will always be considered a favourite to win the title.
But between him and the title stands the bull from Spain; Rafael Nadal, who is on a high after coming out of his injury. One important statistic to note here is that in their last three grand slam meetings Nadal has beaten Federer in all three matches. This is something Federer will be looking to change.
Rafael Nadal will be looking to prove to the world that he is not the second best grass court player in the world, but the best. His victory at the French Open will boost his morale going into Wimbledon. But there is one dampening factor, which is his loss in Queens, because the time he lifted the title in Queens he went on to win Wimbledon. But Nadal would be looking to recreate history at the centre court of the All England club when he beat Federer in the final of 2008, which incidentally was their last meeting there.
But it would be unfair to discount players such as Andy Roddick, Andy Murray, Lleyton Hewitt and Novak Djokovic, who equally have it in them to stun the world and lift the title. Andy Murray will go into the tournament with added pressure from the British public to end their title drought. People may have their individual favourites but it is unclear as to who will come out as a clean winner in Wimbledon this year. The tournament which begins on June 21 is likely to be action packed and full of surprises.
Tags: